Fixed Wireless and Fiber Hybrid Networks: Ease the Transition with Preseem

The Rise of the Multi-Access, Multi-Vendor Network

One of the networking industry shifts we’ve noticed over the last few years across our customer base here at Preseem is the rise of the fixed wireless and fiber hybrid network. Whether it’s fixed wireless providers adopting fiber, or vice versa, hybrid networks are becoming more common for a variety of reasons.

Whether your organization started out as a WISP or a fiber provider, it’s increasingly clear that moving to some form of hybrid network is the best way to ensure stability and ongoing success. Some reasons for this that we’ll look at in this blog include:

• An increase in federal and state funding for broadband projects, many of which lean toward providing investment for fiber.
• Operating a hybrid network allows ISPs to stay flexible and competitive while using the right tool for the job.
• Bottom-line considerations—deploying FWA is cost-effective and will turn a profit faster, while the opportunity cost of ignoring fiber could hurt ISPs in the long run.

In this blog, we’ll also take a look at some of the causes and complexities associated with the above reasons, along with how Preseem can help alleviate some of the pain that comes with operating in a multi-access, multi-vendor environment. As a quick preview, these include:

• Too Many Systems – A hybrid environment is a multi-vendor environment. That means more systems for your teams to learn, more complexity, more time spent trying to find subscribers, etc. With Preseem, you can manage all of your subscribers in one platform, across all access technologies and vendors.
• Support Complexity – Similarly, multiple access technologies mean additional training and complexity for the support team. We simplify this by having everything in one place, along with easy-to-understand data that helps reduce resolution times and unnecessary escalations.
• Isolating Issues in the Network – Preseem provides one set of normalized metrics across access technologies and vendors, so network operations teams can isolate problems much easier, and find and proactively fix issues before customers notice or call in to complain.

First, though, let’s dig into some of the reasons we’re seeing an increase in fixed wireless and fiber hybrid networks.

Increased State and Federal Funding

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, billions of dollars in state and federal funds for broadband deployment and expansion have become available. The biggest of these is the NTIA’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which promised $42.5B to help expand high-speed internet access across the US. The program’s initial stated preference for fiber deployments caused controversy, but also almost certainly led to more WISPs adopting fiber and becoming hybrid networks.

As Jeff Moore, Principal of Wave7 Research reports in this op-ed for Fierce Wireless, an informal poll of WISP executives at a recent WISPAMERICA event stated that the amount of available funding for broadband was the primary reason for the addition of fiber. “No other reason was close,” he wrote.

The Right Tool for the Situation

Another reason for fixed wireless providers adopting fiber comes down to the age-old axiom of using the right tool for the right job. In Moore’s article above, for example, a WISP executive noted that fiber was a better option to provide reliable service to multi-dwelling units (MDUs), such as apartment buildings. Or there could be environmental/terrain factors that favor fiber over fixed wireless.

Of course, this also works in reverse. That is, predominantly fiber and cable-focused providers have adopted fixed wireless access (FWA) to deliver more comprehensive coverage and expand their customer base. Witness the recent inroads into the FWA space made by major telcos, who are using fixed wireless to enter new markets at a fraction of the cost of laying fiber.

Cost Considerations and Staying Competitive

Speaking of cost, that’s one of the obvious advantages to deploying fixed wireless. FWA is easier and cheaper to deploy, allowing regional ISPs to start delivering high-speed internet to their communities quickly at a fair (but profitable) price. Subscribers agree—in a recent study by Parks Associates, for example, 61% of FWA subscribers said they were satisfied with the cost of their internet service, compared to just 51% of fiber subscribers and 35% of cable customers.

Also, in an interesting development, regional fixed wireless operators are starting to “edge in” to urban markets that don’t have comprehensive wireline coverage because of how cost-effective it is to rollout the technology. As Nextlink Internet CEO Bill Baker says in the article linked to above, FWA operators “don’t need 30 to 40% market share for it to make sense financially. They need 2%, 1.5%. It’s a totally different ballgame economically on the fixed wireless side.”

However, there’s also the opportunity cost to consider of not adopting multiple technologies, whether fixed wireless or fiber. For example, in the video below, we spoke with two operators (Grizzly Broadband in Montana and AW Broadband in Texas) who started out as fixed wireless but made the transition to hybrid. Both said that diversifying has meant they can stay competitive, access valuable funding, and ultimately reach more customers.

They also stressed the importance of customer service and support as the key to success, no matter which technology you’re using. As Jason Pond of Grizzly Broadband says in the webinar, “Fiber is just a technology and also same thing with wireless—it’s just a technology. So if you want to be able to really hold down customers in the future, you’re going to have to be a customer-first company and not a technology-first company.”

To learn from their first-hand experiences, check out the full conversation below.

Whatever the reasons for transitioning to hybrid, managing a network with multiple access technologies and vendors is no easy task. For example, consider the cost and time investment involved in training support staff on how to use all the various vendor systems, or upskilling network technicians who may be fluent in one access technology but not the other.

Here’s how Preseem can help your teams thrive in a multi-vendor, multi-access organization, and also help your organization grow while delivering a premium customer experience.

How Preseem Helps Hybrid Network Operators

Simplify the Support Process

Using multiple access technologies and multiple vendors can become a heavy burden on your support team, especially if they have to learn and log into multiple vendor systems in order to do their jobs. Preseem can really simplify this by providing one platform across all access technologies and vendors. For example, your support team will be able to:

• Find customers across all access types and vendors: Instead of logging into the billing system first to try and figure out what equipment the customer is attached to, they can just search in Preseem and see all of their account information in one place—it’s a huge time-saver.
• Determine whether an issue is in the network or the customer’s home: By being able to see key performance indicators at a glance on each subscriber’s account, the support staff will be able to quickly determine if the issue is in-network or in the home, without any vendor-specific training or expertise.
• Get to root cause faster: With access to the above, your support staff will be able to identify the source of issues much quicker. This reduces resolution time and unnecessary escalations, and gives your customers a more pleasant experience when they do have to contact support.

Proactively Identify and Fix Issues

As well as helping your support team reactively resolve issues, Preseem can also help your network operations team proactively find and fix issues.

• Find problems before customers complain: With Preseem, your team can identify problems at the AP, PON, and ONT levels before they start affecting your customers. For example, they’ll be able to easily find and monitor PONs approaching maximum capacity and plan to address the issue before any support calls start.
• Sort APs, PONs and ONTs by standard KPIs across multiple vendors: Network operations can use Preseem’s metrics and trends to generate a work list to improve overall network performance and health, without having to log into multiple vendor tools and cross-reference a ton of data.
• Troubleshoot problems affecting subscriber QoE: Preseem can be used to easily troubleshoot possible issues such as problems with an AP or PON, backhaul problems, or trouble with CPEs. You’ll save on training costs and improve efficiency by having one set of normalized metrics in one platform.

Be Agile, Flexible, and Efficient

Hybrid networks are multi-vendor environments by necessity, as there’s really no vendor that provides best-in-class products across access technologies. This brings complexity but, in our view, being a multi-vendor shop is a positive for regional ISPs as it allows them to be flexible and more responsive. Preseem is a great solution for multi-vendor ISPs because you can:

• Manage fiber and fixed wireless customers in one platform: Access all of your fixed wireless and fiber subscribers across all access technologies, vendors, and models, and save time and money on training while making life easier for your staff and improving efficiency.
• Use the best tool for the job – don’t get locked into one vendor: With Preseem’s single point of plan enforcement, you can implement service plans across access technologies and vendors without needing new integrations each time. Your new flexibility can also help improve your negotiating position with vendors.
• Reduced training, support, and integration costs: All support tasks and most operations tasks can be done in Preseem. This means you save on training costs and also see a reduced overall spend on integration costs of conditional access and plan enforcement.

Improve the Customer Experience

Let’s not forget about the most important part of your business overall: your customers. We heartily agree with Jason’s comment in the video above about positioning yourself as a customer-first company. Generally speaking, your subscribers don’t really care what technology you’re using to get the internet to their home or business. They care about the quality of their experience or how the internet feels when they use it.

With heavy competition in both fiber and fixed wireless, delivering a superior quality of experience can really set you apart and help your business grow and thrive no matter what access technologies you’re using. Here’s a couple of ways Preseem helps ISPs achieve this:

• Improved traffic management: Preseem uses active queue management to divide traffic across virtual queues per subscriber. This means flows can be isolated to keep latency low, even when multiple devices are online, leading to a better experience for your customers.
• Better, faster support: High-granularity subscriber traffic-based QoE metrics provide a near real-time view into subscriber and network behavior to make troubleshooting faster. Historical subscriber metrics help the support team identify and investigate subscriber problems more quickly, with fewer escalations.

For a deeper dive into Preseem’s capabilities for fiber networks in particular, watch this webinar on the recent launch of our fiber features. Or contact us to book a demo and we’ll walk you through a personalized tour showing you how Preseem works on a live network.